local android wms server based on mapsforge

[joemax]

Hi mapsforge team.

I just stumbled upon your project and like it a lot. My question is:
has anybody been thinking about implementing a local wms server for
android, based on mapsforge?

Most navigation apps (ie twonav, oruxmaps, etcpp) support fetching
tiles from wms nowadays. We could feed them locally rendered osm data
and make all these apps instantly osm offline aware. Great benefit.

Any comments? Possible? Impossible? Bad idea? Useless? Already in the
works?

Thanks,
Joe.

[mueh...@inf.fu-berlin.de]

Hello Joe,

as far as i remember, we haven't been thinking about that idea. At
least, nobody is working on it and there is no plan yet. Personally, i
must say that my knowledge about WMS is very limited, just as my time.
Your idea sounds nice, but at the moment we try to focus on our main use
case - to offer a map library rather than a tile server.

Anyway, if you think that you are capable to implement such a feature,
you are free to start working on it. We will help you wherever we can.

Best regards,
Thilo

[joemax]

Unfortunately, my knowledge of java and wms is rather limited (yet).
But it should simply be a matter of patching together existing pieces
of code for a true geek :-). Maybe a simple google/bing-like tile
server would be easier for a start than a full featured wms. Those can
also be accessed by oruxmaps/twonav.

I'd really like to have the power of offline osm rendering in real-
world applications, working together with all the other features,
commercial topo map formats, goodies, etcpp they offer. Osm-only
rendering tools just dont work for serious outdoor use.

[joemax]

to clarify things... i am thinking about a local http server running
on android, that responds to requests like

http://localhost/mapsforge-tiles/cycle/{$z}/{$x}/{$y}.png

rendering configuration options could be given as parameters.

should be quite straight forward to write such a thing with your
library, if only i knew more about java and weren't such an old-
fashioned c geek, ha :-). one question that appears in this context
though: would running a local web server require a rooted device with
su access?

performancewise, it should work quite nicely on modern two-core
phones. one core could run the tileserver rendering thing while the
other core runs the navigation app, data fetching, display (simply
speaking). tiles could also be served as uncompressed bmp to save some
overhead, obviously.